The importance of what you do not see

Estructuras Singulares is an expert advisory service in the area of architectural structures, with more than 20 years of experience, developed by architects and for architects, from the Polytechnic University of Valencia, under the direction of the titular professor and doctor architect David Gallardo Llopis.

The ability to understand the singularity of each structure and the importance of the structure to enhance the idea of the architecture project, are the keys with which we focus every design, analysis, project, direction, assessment, reinforcement, rehabilitation…

Our motto highlights the importance of what you do not see. It is usual that the supporting structure of a building is not visible or apparent. But it is fundamental, because a wrong design or behavior leads to extra execution costs or even extra repair expenses. On the other hand, sometimes it is necessary the structure seem to disappear, eliminating supports, growing spans and overhangs, giving the architecture an image of lightness, as if floating. And finally, when the structure is clearly visible, it is fundamental that it be so integrated with architecture that they become indistinguishable from each other, and again, the structure is no longer visible, because it is architecture.

From the most modest project to the most ambitious one, our goal is for the structure to enhance the quality of the architecture that it supports. The continuous direct relationship (communication) with the architect is fundamental to detect the main ideas of the project, its objectives, constraints, limitations and potentialities, so that we can develop our expert advice always in the same direction as the architect himself.

This expert advice covers all phases of the structure project, obtaining the best results with an early collaboration from the initial designs and extending it to the foundation and structure work.

We are specialized in singular structures (structural architecture, unconventional typologies, large spans and overhangs, special loads, advanced analysis, complex geometries, …), which we design with the most advanced structural analysis tools.

We delineate each plan of the structure project (we do not use any program that generates plans automatically), with the aim of controlling even the smallest details of each project, as the quality of the projected work depends on this.

As APyCE’s driving partners, we consider ourselves responsible authors for our expert structural advice, but at the same time, as architects we are, we understand the structure as an integral and inseparable part of the architectural work, so we put in value the intellectual protagonism of the author of the project, without which nothing we design would be possible.

We also offer, if the architect deems it appropriate, due to the singularity or complexity of the structure in question, a collaboration of shared authorship, being able to assume full responsibility for the project and / or execution of the foundation and structure.